Wiki
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Release Date
1 January 2004
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Length
18 tracks
The Documentary is the debut studio album by American rapper The Game. It was released on January 18, 2005, by Aftermath Entertainment, G-Unit Records and Interscope Records. The record serves as his major-label debut, preceded by his independently released debut Untold Story in 2004. In 2001, while The Game was in hospital recovering from a shooting, he decided to pursue a career in music. He released the mixtape, "Q.B. 2 Compton" under his then record label "Get Low Recordz" in 2002, which was later was discovered by Dr. Dre and led to him signing The Game to his label, Aftermath Entertainment. The album includes production from high-profile producers such as Dr. Dre, Kanye West, Scott Storch and Timbaland, among others, and guest appearances from 50 Cent, Eminem, Nate Dogg and Faith Evans, among others. This would be The Game's only album on Aftermath and G-Unit Records, as he left the label later in 2005 after a feud began between him and fellow G-Unit label-mate 50 Cent.
The Documentary debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 586,000 units in the first week. In March 2005, the Recording Industry Association of America certified the album double Platinum, and by November 2005 the album sold 2 million copies in the U.S. The Documentary received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the album's production. It is also often debated by critics between itself and Doctor's Advocate as Game's best album. Since the album's release, The Game was credited as a "driving force" in reviving the once dominant West Coast hip hop scene that had since been overshadowed by artists from the East, Midwest and South during the early 2000s. The Documentary remains The Game's best-selling album to date. On June 16, 2014, The Game announced a sequel to the album, The Documentary 2, which was released on October 9, 2015, followed by the release of The Documentary 2.5 a week later.
After The Game signed with the G-Unit, he recorded nine songs with fellow American rapper 50 Cent in his home studio in Farmington, Connecticut, and then went back to Los Angeles, California to complete the album with American record producer Dr. Dre. While continuing the recording sessions on the album, he began working with rapper and record producer Kanye West on a song, where Kanye did the chorus. However, the song was left on the cutting room floor. The Game was also inspired to revive the hip hop scene in the West Coast, which had been overshadowed since its heyday in the 1990s by rappers from the East and the South. In 2005, in the interview with Vibe magazine, 50 Cent stated that he was brought in by the Interscope Records to work on the album, claiming that was on the verge of being shelved and The Game was being dropped from the label. However, in the interview with Funkmaster Flex, The Game said that his status was never uncertain that he would be dropped from the label. 50 Cent also claimed that he wrote six songs of The Documentary's eighteen tracks—"Hate It or Love It", "How We Do", "Church for Thugs", "Special", "Higher", and "Westside Story" —and didn't receiving any proper credit for his work. The Game denied those claims, saying that 50 Cent only wrote two hooks on the album.
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